New Orleans -- Urban Campground

Tuesday, March 10, 2009
New Orleans, LA

We arrived here in New Orleans a little after 2pm and found the French Quarter RV Park. By far, it’s the most urban camping we’ve ever done. As I write this I’m looking at skyscrapers and high-rises just a few blocks from where our camp is. And we’re just three blocks from the French Quarter. To be fair, this isn’t camping. This is RV parking. The entire park has maybe 50 sq. feet of grass (and I’m not totally sure from where I sit if it’s real grass or astro-turf?) There are 52 RV sites here and most are occupied. The rates aren’t cheap by any means… a tad over $60 with every discount I could scrounge up. For comparison the most we paid anywhere during 2008 was $32. We agreed we’d do this for three nights because the French Quarter is what we want to see… and the French Quarter is all about night-life and walking and eating and drinking a bit… and I didn’t want to be faced with driving after a few hours on Bourbon Street.

The drive today was easy. Despite some rough roads that rattled our teeth and the dishes in the cabinets, we made it from Abbeville in about three hours including a brief stop for lunch. We took LA14E out of Abbeville to US90E, which we stayed on until almost into the New Orleans Metroplex. We took I-310 across the Hale Boggs Bridge over the Mississippi River, and then onto I-10E to our destination at exit 235A. Total mileage today was 153.

As soon as we backed into our site and plugged in (for the first time in a week), Dar got some laundry going and we poured over brouchures and maps of the area — seeing what’s here and where to go. About 7pm we’ll walk over to Bourbon Street and find something to eat — and see where the night goes from there.